Due to the high intensity sound produced by brass musical wind instruments, in many instances, difficulties are encountered when practicing with such instruments. The instrument player must find a practice room or area so that other persons are not disturbed by the sounds caused by practicing. A number of devices have been proposed to attenuate or dampen the sound of these instruments.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,619 illustrates a sound attenuator device for a wind instrument formed of soft plastic material providing a closed end chamber with sound attenuating material therewithin.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,956 illustrates an acoustical-electrical transducer for brass wind instruments which has a double wall mute having a long, narrow, highly acoustically attenuating path leading to the surrounding atmosphere for transmitting air flow of the instrument to the surrounding atmosphere.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,112,809 discloses a stringed instrument for training purposes, the sounds of the strings being transmitted to the ears of the user by a listening device.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,162 discloses an attachment for a musical wind instrument, such as a trumpet or the like which has a bell type end, having a hollow body and a stethoscope with a membrane and two earpieces, and in which the internal volume of the body is filled with air permeable acoustically damping material the transmitted sound being produced by the membrane.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,318,535 discloses a mute having an inner chamber and an outer chamber, a conduit disposed in the inner chamber communicating with the outer chamber through sound absorbing means associated with the outlet means.
The foregoing mutes are heavy, bulky, cumbersome, expensive, and do not produce a true and unchanged sound of the wind instrument. Also, none of these attachments or mutes can be used as a regular mute rather than as a practice mute.